Barring any last minute changes,
a leadership meeting of the All Progressives Congress will hold next week to
determine the fate of the embattled National Chairman of the party, Adams
Oshiomhole.

A prominent member of the party,
who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue,
confided in one of our correspondents, in Abuja, on Friday that as a precursor
to this meeting, the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, and
Oshiomhole, met in Paris, France, on Thursday. Tinubu had gone to France ahead
of the President’s visit to the country.

It was further learnt that the
meeting between Tinubu and Oshiomhole centred on the growing plot by aggrieved
party members especially governors to remove Oshiomhole from office.

The former Lagos State governor
is one of the party stalwarts backing Oshiomhole who is now under probe by the
Department of State Services.

The Punch reports that an APC source said, “Tinubu and
Oshiomhole met in Paris on Thursday over attempts by governors and some members
of the NWC to remove the party chairman. You will recall that it was Asiwaju
who paved the way for the emergence of Oshiomhole as the chairman when Chief
Oyegun wanted a tenure extension.

“Now that he has come under probe
by the DSS and is being asked to step aside, he has run to Tinubu to save him.
It remains unclear what their strategy will be to put a stop to the probe.”

It was also learnt that some
aggrieved governors had begun reaching out to members of the National Working
Committee to ask Oshiomhole to step aside pending the outcome of the DSS probe.

A member of the party’s NWC, who
wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution said, “The fact that
Oshiomhole is under investigation for allegedly collecting money from aspirants
is bad for the image of the APC government which claims to be fighting
corruption.

“It is for this reason that the
NWC members are being asked (by interested parties) to push for the suspension
of the APC chairman pending the outcome of the probe. The President’s body
language and actions in the coming days will determine Oshiomhole’s fate. For
now, we are still considering it but we don’t want to make any hasty decision
until we are sure that we have the President’s backing.”

Another party source said
high-ranking party leaders would meet “next week” to decide the best way to
proceed without “further depleting the party’s public image and goodwill.”

It was also gathered that
President Buhari, who has taken charge of efforts to resolve the party’s post
primary crisis, would be convening the meeting.

Apart from Buhari, those expected
at the Abuja meeting include: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Tinubu, pioneer
Interim National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, the Minister of
Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu (as former chairman of the defunct
All Nigeria Peoples Party), and Prince Tony Momoh (former National Chairman of
the Congress for Progressive Change).

The party source said, “The
matter is receiving attention at the highest level. We cannot pretend, the
situation involving our national chairman is already in public domain.

“His invitation and subsequent
interrogation by the Department of State Services, is an indictment if you ask
me; but you cannot pronounce a man guilty without giving him the right of fair
hearing.

“The leadership meeting will take
place because as you know, we don’t have a Board of Trustees in place. Mr.
President as the leader of the party, who in fact, has personally taken over
the process of dealing with the post-primary crisis, is convening the meeting
to deal with all these issues.”

In response to a question on
whether there were charges against the party chairman, he said, “Our party has
a constitution, I refer you to Article 21 which deals with the issue of party
discipline. Go and read sub-sections i, ii and xi.”

Article 21 of the APC
Constitution (April 2014 As amended) which deals with the discipline of party
members reads in part, “Subject to the provision of this Article and the right
to fair hearing, the party shall have power to discipline party members. The
power shall be exercised on behalf of the party by the respective Executive
Committee of the party at all levels.

“Offences against the party shall
include the following: (i)a breach of any provision of this constitution; (i)
anti-party activities or any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have
adverse effect on the party or put it into hatred, contempt, ridicule or
disrepute; (xi) in cases of alteration of delegate lists, falsification of
nomination results, and or tampering with the processes of internal democracy
ofthe party, the offender shall be
liable to expulsion from the party and be prosecuted.”

Efforts to get a response from
the party chairman were futile. Calls to the mobile telephone number of Oshiomhole’s
media aide, Mr. Simon Ebegbulem, were neither picked nor returned.

A response to a text message
asking him to confirm whether or not his principal had returned to the country
and what was his response to the news making the rounds about his encounter
with the DSS was still being expected as at the time of filing this report at
8:07pm.

The APC National Publicity
Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, toldSaturday PUNCH on Friday night that Oshiomhole was back in the country.

He said, “The APC chairman is
back in the country as scheduled. This is contrary to speculations that he was
running away. He has been postponing the trip due to the party primaries
andsubmission of candidates’ names to
INEC ”

Asked about the meeting between
Oshiomhole and Tinubu in France, the APC spokesman replied, “I don’t have such
information yet.”

On the proposed leadership
meeting holding in Abuja next week, Issa-Onilu said, “I am not aware but even
if such meeting would hold…you see there is no crisis in APC. What people call
crisis, I call conflict. I can assure you that we are in peace in the APC. The
chairman and the NWC are standing for democracy and you should expect
resistance.

However, the Spokesman for
BuhariCampaign Organisation, Mr. Festus
Keyamo (SAN), said the crisis within the party was being exaggerated by the
media.

Keyamo said the crisis was normal
for a ruling party, adding that things would become normal very soon.

He said, “Let me say clearly that
what is happening now is only normal for a ruling party.”